Europe

Eutelsat has ordered two new satellites from Airbus Defence and Space to replace the three existing HOTBIRD satellites at its 13° East flagship neighbourhood. These all-electric high-power satellites are set to enter into service in 2022, serving Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The new satellites will reinforce and …

The French national space agency, the Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES), in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) and CapDecisif Management, has created a venture fund called CosmiCapital to help create a European New Space ecosystem. The CosmiCapital fund, launched by the CNES in May 2018 and managed by …

What do astronauts, Pokemon, wildlife park rangers, and surgeons all have in common? The answer is virtual and augmented reality, or VR and AR. Usually associated with video games, this ultra-immersive technology is quickly being recognised for its real-world potential. VR is a computer-generated environment that simulates physical presence and …

Newtec, the Belgian specialist company in the design, development and manufacture of equipment for satellite communications, announced on 12 November 2018 its technology will be used by leading satellite operator NIGCOMSAT as it expands its enterprise, government, and consumer Ka-band broadband services in Nigeria. Following on from its continued success …

ICEYE, the Finnish Earth observation company creating the world’s largest synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellation, confirmed on 8 November 2018 that it is launching the company’s second SAR satellite, ICEYE-X2, into low Earth orbit on Spaceflight’s SSO-A: SmallSat Express mission. The mission is currently targeted to launch on 19 …

Following revelations in September 2018 by French defence minister Florence Parly that Russian reconnaissance satellites had maneuvered close to the Athena-Fidus Franco-Italian communications satellite in 2017 in a suspected act of espionage, the French Joint Space Command and the Ministry of Defence are preparing a space defence strategy that will …

Berlin has become a space industry hub, and a popular place for start-ups. One of those is LiveEO, a Berlin-based company that aims to offer services to enable companies to monitor large-scale infrastructure networks, using Earth observation technology. SpaceWatch.Global’s Torsten Kriening spoke to Sven Przywarra, Co-Founder and COO of LiveEO, to find …

Taiwanese New Space company Odysseus is set to relocate to Luxembourg from its home base in Tainan, Taiwan, after winning a U.S.$570,000 prize from the Luxembourg Space Agency, following the company’s first-place finish in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space Resources Challenge. Founded in southern Taiwan by a team of …